Disney Planning 2.0: Shopping Around

Last time I booked Disney – I went straight to the source – Disney Holidays. I checked a couple of prices, conducted lots of research of hotels in advance and then called the super helpful Disney Holidays phone line. It was my first time going to Disney and, as it was our Honeymoon, I wanted to make sure everything was perfect.

At that time they had a great offer on for those from the UK and Ireland. We got

Park Passes – 14 days for price of 7

Free Regular Disney Dining (which we upgraded to Deluxe)

$200 Disney Gift Card

Free Memory Maker

plus all the usual Disney extras.

We booked the Beach Club Resort on a friends recommendation and that was that!

This time, as mentioned previously, I don’t have the same funds or excuse to blow the budget. As much as I would love to stay at the Beach Club resort, unfortunately with our current fund-age, it is not to be.

Cue lots of research into which Hotel to book. I had narrowed it down to a few hotels so i could check the prices. I kind of ruled out the Budget resorts after learning there wasn’t really an on-site bar. In the evening,s whilst on holidays, we like to have a drink in the bar so its a short walk back to out rooms. I started looking at the moderate resorts. I shortlisted it to

Disney’s Art of Animation Resort

Port Orleans Riverside

Walt Disney World Dolphin (no dining plan here)

I started by going online to DisneyHolidays.ie and pricing these three resort to get my starting numbers. When going to Disneyland Paris, I buy my tickets through Attraction Tickets Direct so I tried them too as they have started doing Package Disney World Holidays. Comparing these 2 sites there was already a difference of about €200 per resort. I decided to call AttractionTicketsDirect and to have a chat to see if the price would come down or if they had other recommendations. They did!

They recommended Coronado Springs Resort. I never thought of this and it didn’t come up on the DisneyHolidays.ie page. This was cheaper than the Port Orleans Riverside. After the call I did some research.

I wasn’t keen on the renovated rooms but the newly refurbished rooms looked great! There is construction going on at the minute and during our stay but it didn’t appear to really effect us as all the amenities of the resort were still operational. I called them back on Black Friday, got an extra €150 off, with free amendments and free cancellation. No risk really – so i booked! Happy Days!

Fast-forward to January after being housebound for 2 months and going a little stir crazy. I decided to take a look and see if there were better deals out there. There was – Disney brought in 4 free nights when staying for 2 weeks. I called up Val at AttractionTicketsDirect and asked if she could apply the new price. She did it and it was another €250 off my discounted price!